Episode 2: The Knife is the Cure

At the end of the 19th century, a New York surgeon determined that the only way to cure breast cancer was with radical surgery. For the next hundred years, millions of breast cancer survivors bore the mark of his disfiguring approach.

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Pictures:

Dr. William Halsted (center) in the “operating theatre” at Johns Hopkins Hospital. 1903-1904. Source: Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health.

Recipients of Radical Mastectomy. Source: Meyer, W. Late Results After the Radical Operation for Cancer of the Breast. Annals of Surgery 1920 August; 72(2): 177-180

Lighter reading:

Links:

Meet the “Big Four” founding physicians of Johns Hopkins Hospital

Visit Halsted’s North Carolina mountain estate.

A conversation about Freud, Halsted, and cocaine.

Can you tie a two-handed surgical knot?

Sources:

Genius On the Edge: The bizarre double life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted by Dr. Gerald Imber. 2011

University of Pennsylvania Archives and Special Collections, I.S. Ravdin Papers

Bernard Fisher Interview, National Council of Jewish Women- Pittsburgh Section, Oral History (1981)

Bernard Fisher Interview, American Association for Cancer Research (April 4, 2011)

National Institutes of Health. Great Teachers: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment: In Transits. (September 8, 2004)

Bernard Fisher Interview, American Association for Cancer Research (April 4, 2011)

A special treat for those who made it to the end…

The 2015 docudrama, The Knick, starred Clive Owen who played a New York surgeon loosely based on Halsted.

***Warning: features scenes that some may find distressing including injectable drug use and graphic medical procedures***